ABC Classic Presents: Charlotte Miles

The ABC Young Performers Awards is Australia's most prestigious and longest-running classical music competition, which has for decades provided a national platform for emerging artists to launch their professional careers. In 2026, in celebration of ABC Classic's 50th anniversary, the competition has returned with a renewed commitment to fostering the next generation of exceptional young artists.

The twelve semi finalists have just been announced and ABC Classic invites you to be a part of the audience in their ABC Young Performers Awards journey. To learn about each semi finalist, head to the ABC Young Performers Awards website.

About Charlotte Miles:

The first Australian to attend Germany's prestigious Kronberg Academy, where she studies with Prof. Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt and where she was recently awarded the 2025 Altkönigstift Prize, Melbourne-born cellist Charlotte Miles captivates with her “keen musical intelligence, assured technique and honeyed tone” (Sydney Morning Herald). Awarded over 100 Australian and international prizes, including at the 2024 ARD (DE), 2018 Gisborne (NZ) and 2020 Anna Kull (AT) competitions, in 2021 she won both the Concerto Competition and the Most Outstanding Recital Performance Prize at ANAM. The 2025 recipient of the Melbourne Prize for Music’s Professional Development Award, in 2019 Miles won the Australian National Young Virtuoso Award and was named the 3MBS Young Performer of the Year.

A passionate chamber musician, recent highlights include the Landshut (DE), Oxford May (UK), Stamford (UK) and Haute-Provence (FR) festivals, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music (AU) and the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam (NL). She has toured with the Australian String Quartet and the Australian and Mahler Chamber Orchestras, and substitutes with the Berlin Philharmonic. For the 2025/26 season, Miles is a laureate of the Gautier Capuçon Foundation, and tours with his cello ensemble, the Capucelli. She performs on a ca. 1780 Joseph Hill cello kindly on loan from an Australian collection.

Program:

Janáček Pohádka ('Fairytale')

Dr Lou Bennett AM and Paul Stanhope kalkii for solo cello (2025) (World Premiere)

Bottermund, ed. Starker Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 4

Nadia Boulanger Three Pieces for cello and piano (1914)

Dvořak Silent Woods, Op. 68 No. 5

Ginastera Pampeana No. 2, Op. 21

Please be advised that this performance forms part of the Semi-finals for the ABC Young Performers Awards 2026.

The performance will be recorded and filmed, and attended by a live adjudication panel.

Guests are kindly requested to arrive at least 10 minutes before the event start time as lockouts may apply for late arrivals.